With reductions in size and weight and escalation in the magnification of optical zooming of consumer digital cameras and video cameras (hereinafter referred to as “video movie”) in recent years, they have become significantly convenient, and, as a result, digital cameras and video movies has become one of home appliances used in daily life of general consumers. On the other hand, the reductions in size and weight and escalation in the magnification of optical zooming, and popularization of those products for consumers unfamiliar with shooting images also involve a problem that the camera shake upon image-shooting makes the screen unstable. Therefore, in order to solve this problem, many digital cameras and video movies with an image motion correcting device have been now developed and commercialized. However, these existing image motion correcting devices are designed to correct motion of an image due to the camera shake in the vertical direction (i.e. pitching direction) and in the horizontal direction (i.e. yawing direction). However, the camera shake of digital cameras and video movies upon image-shooting is not limited to those in the vertical direction and horizontal direction, and, for example, the camera shake in a rolling direction may also occur which causes the image to be rotated about an optical axis or an axis parallel to the optical axis.
Thus, there are several proposals of an apparatus for correcting shakes (image rotation) in the rolling direction upon image-shooting as shown below.
For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a video movie including a detecting means that detects inclination of a camera body, a means that judges the degree of inclination according to a signal obtained in the detecting means, a rotating means that rotates an imaging element and a controlling means that controls the rotation means. Patent Document 1 discloses an example of adopting a means using gravity or acceleration as a means for detecting the inclination of the camera and driving the rotation of imaging elements according to the inclination of the camera body to eliminate the inclination (shakes in a rolling direction) of a shot image.
Furthermore, for example, Patent Document 2 discloses an imaging apparatus that images a subject, having an imaging section that acquires an image of the subject, a condition memory that stores detection conditions for detecting a linear component of equal to or greater than a predetermined length out of edge components of the subject, and an image processing section that detects an image element corresponding to the linear component from the image based on the detection condition and detects a geometric difference between the detected image element and a predetermined reference for the inclination of the linear component. Patent Document 2 presents an example where an image obtained from an imaging section is processed, an inclination of the image is detected based on a detected edge component and the inclination (i.e. shakes in the rolling direction) of the shot image is corrected using the inclination of the image obtained.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. HEI4-331586
Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-344723